Malaysian duo stun dwelling crowd at Badminton Asia Championships

Gold medallists Malaysia’s Aaron Chia (4L) and Soh Wooi Yik (4R), silver medallists China’s Liu Yi (entrance L) and Chen Boyang (high L) and joint bronze medallists China’s Wang Chang (3L) and Liang Weikeng (3R) and Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando (R) and Bagas Maulana (2R) pose with their trophies in the course of the award ceremony for males’s doubles remaining match on the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, in China’s japanese Zhejiang Province on April 13, 2025.
| Picture Credit score: AFP

Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik noticed off the house favorites in two units Sunday on the Badminton Asia Championships for the ultimate crown.

The world No. 6 duo beat China’s Chen Boyang and Liu Yi 21-19 and 21-17 in entrance of a disenchanted dwelling crowd within the japanese Chinese language metropolis of Ningbo.

They’re Malaysia’s first champions within the occasion since Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah defended their title on the Asian showpiece in 2007.

Moments earlier, reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand snagged the boys’s singles victory after China’s Lu Guangzu withdrew within the second set after complaining of an harm.

However there have been nonetheless celebrations for Chinese language followers within the crowded stadium.

World No. 1 Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning of China beat No. 3 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan in an electrical two-set finale, successful 21-15 and 21-19 at hand the Japanese duo their first lack of 2025.

The finals berth for the Japanese duo got here days after 27-year-old Shida instructed Chinese language followers to “cease stalking” her and mentioned she was “very scared” by the undesirable consideration.

The Paris Olympics girls’s doubles bronze medallist has a powerful following in China partly due to her engagement with the native tradition.

“Each time we compete in China we all the time expertise the hurt of stalkers,” Shida wrote Tuesday on Instagram in Chinese language, although she thanked nearly all of followers for his or her assist.

“It has already gone on for a 12 months and a half, and not too long ago I’ve felt very uncomfortable and really scared,” she mentioned.

“Any further, please instantly cease stalking me”, she mentioned.

Earlier, Chen Yufei beat Han Yue 2-1 in an all-Chinese language girls’s singles finale.

And Hong Kong China’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet beat Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito 2-1 to win combined doubles gold.